Few records due this fall have made me as happy as Kanni (which is due from Fat Cat on September 10), the stunning new album and first internationally available release from Niger's Tal National. The band's native land isn't a place that springs to mind when one thinks of African music, and indeed, the album feels like a crafty, hard-hitting hybrid of sounds assimilated from all around the continent, especially Congolese soukous and Ghanaian highlife—at times the spiraling, fast-moving, clipped guitar notes remind me of Thomas Mapfumo's chimurenga sound.…
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